June 24, 2357
A Zog grav survey ship jumps out of the Herschel system into a new binary system. Although the new Zog government is more than a little isolationist and anti-expansionist, the survey ship has been out of the home system for almost a year and won’t be informed of the new policies until it returns.
The new system is designated the Gliese 752 system, and it houses the usual assortment of planets and asteroids. One of the planets orbiting the primary is moderately habitable, while the secondary orbits so far out that it is essentially unreachable. The Zog ship begins surveying the system for jump points.
September 16, 2357
The Zog survey ship engaged in a gravitic survey of the Gliese 752 system detects a high technology population on A-II. The survey ship immediately comes to a halt, then, after a short period, turns towards the warp point to leave the system.
On the planet below, the colony’s leaders observe this new behavior and come to the realization that they have been spotted. The fact that the ship is departing rather than trying to contact them they take as a hostile act. After debating the issue they decide to let the ship go. They begin diverting construction capacity towards increasing the colony’s defense capacity.
September 2357
By this time the power within the government has passed to the Prophet, who is now exercising direct rule. The Prophet has essentially the same goals and concerns as the council, so this entails no large changes in policy.
October 16, 2357
The Zog survey ship returns to the Home System with the news of a new race in the Gliese 752 system. Even more alarming is the news that based on transmissions intercepted by the survey ship it appears that the inhabitants of this system are definitely human.
The Prophet and his advisors begin a series emergency meeting to determine the proper course of action.
November 30, 2357
The Prophet decides to dispatch a fleet to the Gliese 752 system to confront the Terrans. If they are isolated remnants of the old Empire then they will be conquered, however, the fleet commander is charged with determining their current status. If they are still part of the Empire then he is to leave them alone, at least for now. This fleet commander is told that if he provokes a war without first determining the status of the population then he will be peeled and boiled alive.
The Fleet consists of four jump cruisers, five area defense cruisers, seven strike cruisers, and nine missile destroyers. In addition, the troop transport group embarks troops for the anticipated invasion of the human planet.
January 14, 2358
The Zog Fleet has arrived in the Gliese 752 system. The fleet immediately begins moving in-system. The commander, Warrior Letfraiashav, is somewhat concerned about approaching a colony belonging to the legendary racial enemy of the Zog, but he has been charged with dealing with this threat one way or another, and he is determined to do so. Additionally, he has been specifically ordered by the commander of the fleet, General Vriaprinzhtlas, to regard the humans as a threat to the Zog race, and to interpret his orders in such a way so as to eliminate that threat, forthwith.
January 22, 2358
The Zog fleet is crossing the orbit of the system’s seventh planet when it receives a message from the humans on the second planet. The Zog fleet is ordered to stop where it is and proceed no further, on the authority of the Terran Empire. The message is sent in standard Terran, a language the Zog databanks and translation systems are familiar with. Warrior Letfraiashav has specific orders covering this situation and complies with the orders, after which he sends a message to the colony asking to meet with their representatives to discuss opening relations between their races.
The message is received on the human colony, known locally as New Birmingham, with suspicion. The aliens sent their response suspiciously quickly, and in standard Terran, which indicated to the New Birmingham colony leaders the fact that the aliens were familiar with Terrans and/or the Empire. A search of the colony’s old databanks revealed the fact that the aliens were Zogs, a very hostile race discovered during the days of the old Empire. Little data still remained about the Zogs, at least on New Birmingham, but what did exist indicated that the Zogs were very dangerous. The colony’s leaders decided to try to bluff their way out of the situation. They agreed to send a delegation to meet with the Zog fleet. The squadron left orbit immediately.
January 23, 2358
Warrior Letfraiashav sourly watched as the three Terran ships settled into their assigned location 20 mkm’s from the Zog fleet. The three ships were impressive. They were twice the size of one of his missile destroyers and 25% larger than even a Zog jump cruiser. Their speed was less impressive. The Terran ships had approached at 4,000 kps, which was faster than his jump cruisers, but substantially slower than the rest of his fleet.
Warrior Letfraiashav was not looking forward to the upcoming negotiations. He was forbidden from attacking the Humans if they were still part of their interstellar Empire, but if he determined they were isolated then he was mandated to attack them. The slightest misstep would be disastrous, as neither the naval high command nor the Prophet tolerated failure. Success in this endeavor, though, would ensure promotion.
While Warrior Letfraiashav struggled with his doubts over his mission, the Terrans aboard the three New Birmingham System Defense destroyers watched the Zog ships with mounting concern. So far they had acted as if nothing was amiss. As if they didn’t know who the Zogs were, and as if they weren’t concerned by the fact that a previously unknown race had shown up in their system with a fleet of twenty five ships.
February 5, 2358
Warrior Letfraiashav looked down at his tactical display yet again, allowing the Prophet’s Voice to drone on and on about the need to be cautious. Letfraiashav had had it up to his tentacle roots with caution and was tired of waiting. He and his primary officers were convinced that the humans were bluffing. They had been very adroit in avoiding all questions about the Empire as a whole, and he was sure that they hadn’t seen anyone from outside their system until his force arrived. Unfortunately, the Prophet’s Voice disagreed and continued to advocate for peaceful contact with the humans. Letfraiashav stared at the display, thinking about the old reports from the war with the humans. The Imperial Zog Navy had beaten the humans again and again, but each time they had returned stronger than before. And Letfraiashav had noted that in spite of the positive outcome of every battle, the battles were being fought in the Zog home system, not the Terran home system, a fact conveniently skipped over by the old historians when they spoke of great Zog victories. The humans were implacable, and coddling these humans was a mistake. He was sure that General Vriaprinzhtlas agreed, and would support him. Abruptly Letfraiashav came to a decision. Standing, he gestured at his guards. “Arrest the Voice!”
The guards surged forward as if they had been waiting for his command. In seconds the Prophet’s Voice was bound and rushed out of the room over his objections. He turned to his officers, all of whom had risen on their tentacles and were watching him carefully. “We attack the humans! Immediately. Warn the fleet.” The officers scattered to carry the word and Letfraiashav settled back into his couch contemplatively. The Voice would not be harmed, but if he failed to conquer this system then his life would be forfeit. If he succeeded, though, the high command would back him and there would be no consequences for detaining the Voice, who would be proved wrong in his assessment of the Humans, he was sure. As long as he won.
The Zog fleet got under way two minutes later, heading directly for the Terran ships sitting just under 20 mkm’s away. The Terran ships protested, and then turned to run, increasing their speed to 8,000 kps in their bid to escape. Letfraiashav had planned on sending his strike cruisers to intercept the human ships, but even those swift ships could not match the human’s turn of speed. He considered the situation briefly, trying to decide whether or not to launch missiles. A little checking showed that the human ships were in range, even running away, but after some consideration Letfraiashav decided to let them go. After all, they had no place to run to, except their planet. They would be easy to find, and would have to sit still and take his missile bombardment once he was within range of the planet.
February 7, 2358
For the last day and a half the defenders of New Birmingham watched as the Zog fleet approached. Now, finally, they were in range of the missile launchers on Scorch, the inner planet, and of those on the squadron in orbit of the colony. Missiles began streaming away, towards the alien ships 84 mkm’s away. The ships and PDC’s fired three salvoes and then stopped. The fleet’s tacticians had no idea how many missiles would be required to penetrate the Zog defenses. This was a test of the Zog defenses, as they had no wish to waste missiles in overkill.
For the Zog’s, the first warning they had was when the incoming missiles appeared on their sensors. The PDC’s on Scorch had fired using sensor data transmitted from the ships orbiting the colony, so the Zogs had no idea that the PDC’s existed, yet. The only thing they knew was that missiles were approaching the fleet in two groups, coming in from different locations in the inner system.
The first group of Zog AMM’s flashed away from the fleet at 40,000 kps, rushing to interpose themselves between the incoming missiles and the vulnerable ships of the fleet. The first AMM wave scored hits on nine out of fifteen missiles. Six more AMM’s flashed away from the ships to intercept the remaining missiles, while inner zone point defenses prepared for the onslaught. By then fifteen additional missiles had appeared on the fleet’s scanners.
Five AMM’s in the second wave scored hits, reducing the first wave of offensive missiles to just one. The remaining offensive missile was targeted the instant it crossed into the inner defense zone and was destroyed by three fusion torpedoes launched from the lead strike cruiser. In the meantime the second wave had been thinned out, while a third wave appeared on the scanners. Three missiles from the second wave broke into the inner defense zone, only to be stopped cold by torpedo fire at 180,000 kilometers. Four missiles from the third wave broke into the inner zone and were stopped by torpedo fire as well.
Two minutes and thirty seconds after the last missile in the third wave was destroyed a fourth wave appeared on the fleet’s scanners, this time approaching along a different vector. As before there were fifteen missiles in the salvo. Five missiles from the fourth, fifth, and sixth salvoes made it to the inner defense zone, but all were intercepted by fusion torpedo fire.
In the aftermath of the missile attack Warrior Letfraiashav felt confident that the fleet could deal with the human’s missiles. His fleet hadn’t come close to being taxed by the salvoes launched by the humans, and he still had nearly full stocks of anti-missile missiles. He ordered his fleet to continue on towards the planet.
On New Birmingham the Admiral in command of the defense forces frowned. New Birmingham was slightly closer to the threat than Scorch, so the missiles launched from his destroyers had arrived before those from Scorch, and had been easily intercepted by the Zogs. If they were going to succeed they would need to coordinate better. He issued the necessary orders, and missile launches began again, this time staggered so as to arrive on the target closer together.
The second missile attack began the same as the first had, with fifteen missiles appearing on the scanners of the Zog ships. AMM’s flashed away immediately after the sighting and the fleet settled in for another missile attack. As before a second wave of missiles appeared just after the first wave was intercepted by the leading AMM’s. Unlike the last time though, this time a third wave of missiles appeared on a second heading while the first missiles were still in-bound from the first heading. The humans had obviously tried to coordinate their missile attacks and had almost gotten it right. A total of six salvoes raced in towards the Zog fleet. The last five all approached at more or less the same time, with only the leading salvo coming in too soon. In spite of this better coordination the Zog anti-missile defenses easily dealt with this attack as they had the earlier one, and only five missiles in five different salvoes survived to reach the inner defense zone, only to be swatted from space by torpedoes. Once again the Zog fleet had survived missile attack. Warrior Letfraiashav, in particular, was relieved. He hadn’t even had to employ all of the AMM launchers in the fleet to deal with this attack, and they still had numerous AMM’s in their magazines.
The defense coordinators on New Birmingham were disappointed in the results of their attack. This attack had been better coordinated than their last, to no avail. There was one last alternative. The ships had launched 50% of their offensive missiles, while the PDC’s had launched 30%. There were some missiles available for resupply on New Birmingham, but not many. The planners ordered the destroyers to reload, and then they ordered one final fusillade which would include every missile they had.
The third missile attack on the Zog fleet began exactly as the others had, with fifteen missiles appearing directly along their course to the inhabited planet. Once again AMM’s flashed away from the Zog ships, and explosions began littering space ahead of the fleet. By the time the third wave from the inhabited planet was on their sensors the first wave from the inner planet had arrived in the outer engagement area. Unlike the other attacks, though, this one didn’t end after three salvoes. What followed was five minutes of hell for the Zog crews as wave after wave of missiles appeared on their scanners and raced towards their fragile ships. Wave after wave of AMM’s raced away and interceptions were almost continuous. Space in between the fleet and the planets was spalled with flickering explosions as missiles intercepted each other, and at times the explosions seemed to race towards the fleet as the attacking missiles got closer and closer. Occasionally missiles would break through the swarms of interceptors and raving balls of energy launched from the strike cruisers would lash out at them. One missile early on broke through all of the defenses and raced towards one of the lumbering jump cruisers but that ship’s close-in defenses stopped it just before it detonated.
The onslaught lasted for five minutes. Twenty five salvoes, over three hundred and eighty offensive missiles, attacked the fleet. At the very end one of the last missiles in the very last salvo raced past everything the Zog fleet could throw at it and slammed into a strike cruiser’s shields, but that was the only hit out of the entire assault. The final missile attack was over.
Warrior Letfraiashav was shaken by the ferocity of the attack. This was the first combat situation he had ever been in. After taking stock of the situation be realized that not only had they come through without damage but that they were still in good condition. Several of his ships were low on anti-missile missiles but overall his fleet still had better than 50% of the AMM’s that they had entered the system with. He was still determined to continue on.
Turning to the tactical display he tried to figure out what the humans were up to. In all three attacks the missiles had come from two widely separated points corresponding to the two inner planets. One of those planets was the human colony, but the other was a blisteringly hot planet with a crushing atmosphere. There was no way that the humans had a colony there, as they weren’t that different from Zogs. Just before the last attack his sensors had finally resolved the three human warships orbiting the colony, and those were likely the source of the missiles launched from that site. Just after the missile attack started his sensors detected three rather small PDC’s on the inner planet. Try as he might he couldn’t figure out what the humans thought they were doing when they put the PDC’s on the inner planet, but in the end he didn’t care. It appeared that they were out of missiles, which was all he cared about at this point. He ordered his fleet to continue on towards the planet and its defenders.
On the planet the defense coordinators were dismayed at the failure of their missile attack. The Zog fleet was still in-bound and aside from a close assault by the three destroyers there was nothing they could do to stop them. There was no choice but to surrender, they told the political leadership.
The leaders of the New Birmingham colony had no stomach for surrender. The information in the old databanks about the Zogs made that a very unpalatable choice. Still, their own military was telling them that they couldn’t stop the Zogs. There was no choice. A message was sent to the Zogs asking for terms.
Warrior Letfraiashav responded to the message quickly. If the humans laid down all arms and submitted to the will of the Prophet, completely and immediately, then they would not be destroyed. Just to ensure that they knew what that entailed he sent them detailed files of the conquest of Madras. Warrior Letfraiashav thought that letting the humans know what faced them if they fought on was a mercy, but honestly he hoped that they did continue to fight. He wanted to crush them decisively.
The response by the Zog has the opposite effect that Warrior Letfraiashav had intended. The leaders of the colony were appalled at the wholesale destruction and looting perpetrated by the Zog after taking Madras. After consulting with their military the leaders decide that they have no choice but to resist to the end. No response is sent to the Zogs.
Eighty minutes later the Zog fleet is within range of the human warships with its own offensive missiles. Warrior Letfraiashav, angered by the recalcitrance of the humans, ordered an immediate missile strike against the three ships. Shortly thereafter five salvoes consisting of forty eight missiles each raced away from the fleet towards the distant planet and its defenders.
The human defenders were forced to watch as the missiles raced towards their small squadron. The missiles were picked up almost as soon as they were launched by the colony’s big detectors, but there was little they could do until the missiles got much closer. Each destroyer mounted six anti-missile tubes and two offensive meson cannons which could be used for point defense in a pinch. That gave them a grand total of eighteen anti-missile tubes and six beam weapons to counter a grand total of two hundred and forty missiles. Each and every one of the crews on board the ships wanted to run and hide, but they had all seen the videos that the Zogs had sent, and none wanted that for their people.
Just before the Zog missiles entered the outer defense envelope the small squadron began moving directly away from the oncoming missiles in an attempt to slow the attacking missiles’ rate of approach. It would buy them exactly thirteen point seven five seconds, which wasn’t much but better than nothing. AMM’s began spilling from their tubes as soon as the incoming missiles were close enough, and they went to continuous fire as the number of incoming missiles mounted rapidly. The first interceptions took place just 618,000 kilometers short of the fleet and the defending AMM’s did poorly. They were a full 10,000 kps slower than the incoming missiles and their hit percentage suffered as a result. Just under a third of the first wave of interceptors hit their targets.
The explosions crept closer and closer to the fleeing ships as the human anti-missile missiles did their best to stop the attacking missiles. Their best wasn’t good enough. The first missile wave, only slightly reduced by the human anti-missile missiles, raced in to attack as the human fleet’s final defensive fire from its meson cannons lashed out. Not one of the cannons, which were designed for attacking slower targets, hit the incoming missiles. In the blink of an eye the three human ships were covered in explosions as the missiles detonated. A total of thirty three missiles hit the three ships, knocking down their shields. Surprisingly not one of the ships suffered any internal damage. The Zog missiles were small, just twice the size of one of the human AMM’s. They didn’t carry powerful warheads, but there were a lot of them.
Forty five missiles from the second wave survived to attack the human ships. This time their shields were gone and nothing but their armor stood between them and the attackers. The lead destroyer’s armor was breached in three places and she lost a drive, two missile launchers, a fire control and a meson cannon. The second destroyer suffered equivalent damage, while the third’s armor was only breached in one place and she suffered no internal damage. Three more waves of missiles were racing towards them, though.
Like the second wave, forty five missiles from the third wave survived to reach attack range. All three human destroyers survived the attack, but the armor of the two lead ships was shredded and both were heavily damaged. The third destroyer continued to lead a charmed existence and while it had suffered further damage to its armor it was still essentially undamaged.
Forty two missiles from the fourth wave slammed into the three ships causing even more damage. This time the third destroyer’s apparent immunity evaporated. Nine missiles slammed into it, shredding its armor and causing one of its engines to explode in a massive secondary explosion that shredded the rear of the ship.
Thirty one missiles from the fifth and last wave slammed into the three ships and it was just too much. The lead ship and its escort blew up under the onslaught, while the third ship staggered out of the fireballs heavily damaged. The missile attack was over, at least for now. Only one last crippled ship remained to defend New Birmingham. Even as it limped back to orbit repairs were underway, not that anyone really expected them to make any difference.
Sure enough, one minute after the last missile hit its target a new group of missiles was launched from the Zog fleet. The New Birmingham crewers were forced to watch as the missiles steadily approached. Finally, nine minutes later, with the missiles entering their final attack runs, the crippled destroyer’s commander gave the order to abandon ship. Life pods began spilling from the doomed ship, and thirty seconds later the ship self-destructed. The battle in orbit was over.
Down below the leaders of New Birmingham refused to surrender. Warrior Letfraiashav had already called for the troop ships waiting at the warp point to move forward. They would have to do this the hard way.
Six hours later the Zog fleet entered orbit over New Birmingham. After taking stock of the situation Warrior Letfraiashav detached two area defense cruisers and four missile destroyers to deal with the PDC’s on the inner planet. The ships left immediately.
With no offensive weapons left the officers and crews on the PDC’s tried to surrender, but the Zogs refused all communications. To the Zogs the humans on the PDC’s were heretics who had willfully refused to hear the word. Their punishment would be to die as they had lived, alone on an uninhabitable planet.
The Zog attack group settled into low orbit and began to pound the planet below. Knowing that the defenders likely had AMM launchers, but that they couldn’t use beam weapons to defend themselves because of the atmosphere, the Zog group got as close as they could to the PDC’s before launching. With less than five seconds passing between launch and impact the defenders had no chance to launch AMM’s.
The Zog ships launched forty eight missiles at two of the PDC’s, seriously damaging both, but then, with their magazines almost dry, they were forced to withdraw back to the main force. The PDC’s would remain, at least for now.
February 15, 2358
The Zog transport group arrived over New Birmingham several days ago, and it finished unloading on this date. The Zog ground forces, eight full brigades composed primarily of assault infantry, along with eleven additional battalions of infantry and garrison units, and nine replacement battalions, are on the ground and ready to fight. The defenders are dug in, but don’t have anywhere near the Zog combat strength.
With the troops on the ground and no sign of additional resistance in orbit, Warrior Letfraiashav decides to finish off the PDC’s on the inner planet. The entire Zog force leaves orbit shortly after the unloading is complete.
The three PDC’s are completely destroyed after forty seconds of bombardment, but to finish the job Warrior Letfraiashav had to nearly empty his DDG’s magazines. When the Zog fleet pulled out to return to New Birmingham they left behind a radioactive planet with three large craters where there used to be PDC’s.
During the trip back to the human colony, Warrior Letfraiashav pondered the situation he now found himself in. Every deployment of the Dulalas class DDG’s had ended thus, with the ships out of, or nearly out of missiles. The ships themselves were small, and weren’t intended for stand up battles but rather for quick strikes. Still, their lack of endurance was troubling for long deployments. His thoughts about their small magazine capacity had coincided with his analysis of the human’s missile attack on his fleet and he had come to a realization. During his analysis he had realized that the humans had had plenty of missiles to attack him with, and more than enough to overwhelm his defenses, if they had been able to launch them fast enough. They couldn’t though, and so his fleet survived. While he was grateful for that, he also took it as a warning for the future. If he in some future conflict, faced an enemy with the defenses to handle his salvoes, then he would end up as the humans had here, defeated and possibly dead. Possible solutions included more magazine space on board the DDG’s, or fleet supply ships with extra missiles, but they did nothing to address the problem of salvo size. For that he was playing with the idea of recommending to fleet central the deployment of ships with the newer box launchers, which would allow massed salvoes of very large densities. It was worth considering, he felt.
After some consideration Warrior Letfraiashav decided to detach his DDG’s, along with an area defense cruiser and a jump cruiser, to return to the home world. They could bear word of his successful attack and without missiles they were nothing more than targets here.
